Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Sarcoma matters. My brother's cancer matters. Not many people know that people get this cancer - Soft Tissue Sarcoma - and suffer through it with their families each and every day across the globe. Check it out. Learn more about Soft Tissue Sarcoma.

Lots of people are praying for your recovery from your Lung cancer surgery on May 1, 2008. I don't understand why this is happening to you, so fast and so aggressively. But I accept it as God's plan. I love you and we are are all wishing you the best of health during this horrible ordeal, channelling positive energy, and know you will come out stronger after this experience. Damn. The only way to look is up though... I love you. We love you. Stay strong

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

From The Wife:Well, today we got the surgery date. Marco is scheduled for surgery next week Thursday, May 1st.

M&M (Marco) was asking if we could request to have the same recovery room at City of Hope because he loved the view. He was trying to figure out what the menu read and what he liked from the menu.....I told him I loved the cream of wheat and the ice cream and he couldn't remember what he liked.

Everyone is doing a little better this time around knowing that M&M is being taken care of at COH. Like we all said from day one - we know he is a fighter and nothing will bring him down. We will help him fight-on and we will rally together to get M&M through this again.

I would like to take this time to thank Weezy for being brave at the donor center at COH. One Day at a Time, The Wife and Weezy gave it their all to donate blood for the up coming surgery for M&M. In case blood is needed, it will be used by someone in need of blood.

Well as the day went on we all got brave and walked in the center determined to donate blood. Little did we know we would be faced with a thousand questions that made you think twice about going to the next level (there was three steps to be approved) all for the good of the patients at COH.

As we all followed in a row through each step it looked like we would all be eligible to donate. I was first to be called and was rejected because of my hip surgery 5 months ago. That feeling of rejection was harsh. I walked out of the room with my head hanging in disappointment. One Day at a Time passed me by with a smile on her face knowing she would be donating and not even five minutes passded and she too came out with her smile upside down...rejected! We waited for Weezy to come out as well. She was taking a lot longer than we all did.

We were all laughing. Weezy would be the one to be eligible to donate! She was the main one not sure if she could go through it in the first place because of the long needles. We were very proud of her bravery and came out like champ with a new T-Shirt.

Friday, April 11, 2008

From The Wife:Every six months we have been going with Marco to City of Hope to have a CT Scan of Marco's lungs - a routine check to catch any signs of the cancer spreading, the lung is where it would go to first if not in the calf muscle. This appointment is not one we look forward to - at least I never do. I do not like the unknown.

This appointment brings chills to my spine. I can only imagine what goes through Marco's as he sits in that room waiting to see Dr. Trisal.

The last appointments have been great news. There had not been any signs of cancer. And we all cheered and we were very happy for the news. Marco's last CT Scan was on September 2007 - about six months ago with everything looking good.

Today is April 10, 2008, six months to the day of his last CT Scan and the day we never wanted to come.

Today Dr. Trisal let us know that Marco had a small tumor in his left lung. It needs to be removed right away. Dr. Trisal says it has grown rapidly in the last six months to about 11 mm in size.

The next step is waiting for the surgery date. I will keep you posted.

And we fight on..........and as Dr. Ronnie Kaye says in an article I read yesterday in COPING Magazine she says.......

In struggling to come to terms with this issue "cancer" her patients have learned:

First, while there are no guarantees after cancer, there were never any guarantees before cancer either. Vulnerability is simply a fact of life for all human beings, not just for cancer survivors.

Second, no matter whether we live 90 more days or 90 more years, we cannot lose and cancer cannot win as long as we live our lives as fully as possible and refuse to give up our ability to love and our capacity for joy. (positive thinking)

Our New Blog

What is Soft-Tissue Sarcoma?

Soft tissue sarcomas are cancerous tumors that originate in the soft tissues of the body.

These tissues include muscle, fat, blood vessels, nerves, tendons and the lining of the joints. Marco's sarcoma started off as a tumor in his calf muscle in December 2007. The tumor was surgically removed, then treated with radiation.

The cancer later spread to his lung area, the tumors were also surgically removed, his body treated with chemo. He had three more tumors in his lungs, which they tried to shrink down with chemo.

Doctors had ruled out any more surgeries after chemo but they finally agreed.

On March 15, 2010 they removed the three tumors from his lungs, a section of the lung and diaphragm and three sections of ribs. Marco was in intensive care for over a week fighting an infection.

A CT scan showed worrisome signs that the cancer was back and it was confirmed with a PET scan.

Marco went through the maximum number of chemos to try to shrink that tumor. The tumor was not being responsive to the chemo in the shoulder area and there was a new tumor discovered near the aorta that was showing some response.

On Jan 15, 2011 Marco started 6 weeks of radiation aimed at his chest area, 5 days a week 30 min a day before surgery options were put on the table again.

After much debate, surgery was completed March 28, 2011. Marco underwent a painful recovery at home, only to discover over the Labor Day weekend that the sarcoma has spread to his brain.

Marco had brain surgery September 2011 to have the brain tumor removed. He also completed radiation to the operated area. On October 2011, Marco exhausted all of his treatment options at City of Hope. Marco entered home hospice care.

On March 3, 2012, Marco passed away at home surrounded by his family. You can read the posts and archive to read his story.